Texas Wildflowers | Vernonia missurica, Missouri ironweed

While we were doing our field work in the Big Thicket this late spring and early summer we kept coming across this plant in its pre-blooming stage. No one could figure it out until finally it was identified by Ron Lance. And not much later the plant started blooming and it was beautiful! The tell-tale white stripe in the leaves helped us identify it later on without blooms.

This particular plant was photographed at Tandy Hills. I was relieved to see a plant I knew among the many unknown prairie plants that abound the preserve. There were a couple of bugs we tried to photograph that were hanging out on the purple inflorescence but I didn’t get any spectacular shots.

More info:
+Illinois Wildflowers
+Wildflower.org
+USDA plant database
+Seeds from Prairie Moon—can’t verify the company since I’ve never ordered from them, but if you are looking for your garden, here’s an option.
+Houston Audubon